Something Different
by Why Black Hairs the New Blonde
Summary: It's kind of annoying now that I think about it, people always, reminding you of a relationship that never really got off the ground to begin with. People change. I'm a different person than I was at Hogwarts.


**Something Different**

It is kind of lonely, you know, not having anyone. I mean, my parents died in the war and since they were both only children, I don't have any cousins or anything. And I don't think I have any grandparents, if I do, I've never met them before. Harry has Ginny, Luna has Neville, even Lavender has Seamus (I didn't think that one would last). Then there's Ron. Who knows if Ron has anyone at all? It doesn't matter. We stopped talking awhile back because of something really stupid. I don't even really remember what it was about. All I know is that he was wrong, but Ron was always stubborn and that's what I loved about him. Yes, at one point I had loved Ronald Weasley. Ginny didn't find this too shocking. She said, and I quote, "Come on Hermione, the whole school can feel the chemistry between you two. Just get together already!" Everyone always asks about Ron. I ran into Hannah Abbott awhile back and even _she_ asked about Ron.

It's kind of annoying now that I think about it, people always reminding you of a relationship that never really got off the ground to begin with. They think that I'm going to say "Yes, Ron and I are doing _grand_. In fact, our 3rd child is at Hogwarts already, can you believe it? My little Johnny is all grown up."

But no. I go for the surprise and say, "Oh, Ron and I aren't together anymore."

And then they say, "Really? What happened? At Hogwarts, everyone thought you two were soul mates."

Then I have to smile and say, "Well, that was a long time ago, people change. I'm a different person than I was at Hogwarts." In all honesty, I'd have to say that on a whole I'm the same person I was four years ago. Yes, it's sad. I have a predictable job as a reporter for the Daily Prophet. They needed a new reporter after _someone_ spilled the beans about Rita Skeeter's little _bug_ problem.

You would think that people would realize it's a little awkward for me to talk about Ron now, but no. Usually people continue with something like "Oh, do you still keep in touch with Harry, then?"

And of course I honestly reply, "Um... yes, yes I do." And then I have to find a clever way to leave the conversation, like "Oh, that's my phone!" Witches and wizards still don't know what those are, so it's usually a pretty safe excuse, but if they do I use something like, "Oh, I just remembered, I have to meet my mother." But that doesn't always work, especially if they knew me in seventh year, so I usually use, "Wow, look at the time, I need to meet Ginny." Yes, that one always works.

Then I leave with them mutter about what a good couple Ron and I were. I think it was the tension of getting jobs, yes that sounds about right. I mean, we had just gotten out of Hogwarts and I guess we just wanted different things. In the end, I took a job at the Daily Prophet (well, who else would I trust to report the truth) and Ron went into Auror training with Harry. I suppose Harry and Ron still keep in touch, but Harry and I don't talk about him. The last time I talked to him was at Harry and Ginny's wedding right after Harry and Ron had graduated from Auror school. That was the day that Ron told me he was going to work in the tombs with his brother in Egypt.

Yes, I remember that day...

_I was wearing this soft, cascading green dress that I had helped Ginny pick out. It was floor length with strategically placed flowers and... Wait, I think I should stop reminiscing about the dress. Anyway, the dress was nice, but that's not the point of my flashback. So I was in the back of the church with Ginny and Luna and like any bride to be, Ginny was getting a little bit of cold feet. Luna and I tried everything to get her to calm down._

_"But what if Harry isn't the one? What if I'm making a terrible mistake?"_

_"A terrible mistake? Ginny, you have had a crush on Harry since before you came to Hogwarts," I said as I sat next to her on the window seat bench._

_"As long as I've known you it's been, 'Harry this' and 'Harry that.' I mean Harry's always been a nice guy and all, but no one can have that much to say about him," Luna added nonchalantly as she looked at her lily bouquet._

_"I don't talk about Harry that much," Ginny said shaking her head. Then she looked up at us. "Do I?"_

_"Yeah, yeah you do," Luna and I said almost in unison. _

_Then we laughed. It wasn't like when we laughed at Hogwarts. I mean, we hardly laughed at Hogwarts, unless Ron was around to say something completely ridiculous, but when we did laugh it was an empty laugh. A laugh that was more like a hollow bell then everyone else's chime like laugh. This laugh was so full of life and love and hope and faith. This laugh was your ideal laugh. Wow, I'm getting emotional about the way we laughed. Let's just say, the way we laughed together, all single women, was the perfect Hallmark moment._

_Then, Ginny's niece or Bill and Fleur's second child came in. She was the flower girl. She said that her uncle, it doesn't matter which one, told her to come get us. It was time. Thankfully, Ginny was all ready to go. She really was gorgeous that day. Her dress was magnificent. It was strapless and flowing and... once again, I'm reminiscing about dresses. Let's move on shall we._

_So there I was, arm in arm with Ron, who was Harry's best man of course. As we walked down the aisle, he leaned over and whispered into my ear, "I need to talk to you at the reception."_

_Naturally, I thought Ron wanted to get back together. I really did love him, when we broke up before I went into a "sweats and ice cream" phase. Let's just say that wasn't pretty. After Ron had said this, I had a sickeningly sweet smile practically plastered on to my face. But who wouldn't? I mean, I was getting back together with the love of my life. How much better could life get? But I was a complete fool._

_After the absolutely fairy tale perfect ceremony, we went to the reception, which was also amazing, but I wouldn't have expected anything less from Ginny. Ginny was always that perfectionist with a wonderful inner eye for detail and what not. People say I was the brilliant one, but Ginny, well Ginny was naturally like that. She was naturally charismatic and charming and brilliant and... I really do need to stop getting off on tangents._

_So we were at the reception and everyone was dancing and having a wonderful time, except for me. I had turned down both Fred and George numerous times in hopes that Ron would ask me to dance. Yes, I know, that sounds really desperate. But Ron being, well, Ron, he was just really into his steak. I remember sitting there in the Weasely's backyard at the Wedding party's table picking at my salad trying to decided if I should go talk to Ron or wait for him to come talk to me. Lost in my thoughts, I didn't even realize Viktor Krum come up to talk to me. I didn't even remember seeing Viktor before then. I suppose Harry invited all the champions. Well, Fleur was Ginny's sister- in- law and Cedric was, well, he died, so that really doesn't make any sense, but anyway, Viktor was there._

_"Hermioninny," He has never gotten that right, "It is so good to see you. I can't believe ve lost touch."_

_"Viktor, so good to see you, too," I said as I stood up to hug him. This was all I needed to do to get Ron to come talk to me._

_"Um.. Hermione? Could I talk to you?" Ron mumbled as he stood up._

_"Ronald! Good to see you again," Viktor said._

_"Yeah...Good to see you too. Umm… Hermione, I really need to talk to you," Ron mumbled again._

_"Sure Ron. If you'll excuse me Viktor, it really was great to see you again," I said in my most dignified way as I got up to talk to Ron._

_As soon as I got up, Ron pulled me out of their backyard, through the kitchen, into the hallway, and into the hall closet. Let's just say, I was in love with that closet._

_"Hermione, I…" he paused_. He was nervous, I thought, that must mean he's going to ask me out again._ "Ermm… Well, Hermione, I just wanted to tell you" This was it, the moment I'd been waiting for since we broke up the first time. "… I'm moving to Egypt. I'm going to work with Bill."_

_My world came crashing down in that single moment. No longer did I love that closet. In fact, that closet became the closet from Hell. I'm still sure that is the gateway to Hell. No offence to the Weasley's. I mean, they have a very lovely home, but there had to be a reason why 1) Ron picked the closet of all places to tell me he was moving to Egypt and 2) Why it was so hot in there. _

_"Wow, Ron, wow," was all I could manage say._

_"I know it's sudden Hermione, but I wanted to tell you myself."_

_"Um… um… So Ron, um… When do you leave?" I said as I leaned back into a spider web, but that didn't matter. I just remember the closet getting hotter and hotter._

_"After the wedding and I start working on Monday," he said uneasily._

_"Really," I know, it just kept getting better and better. "Wow, umm… is it hot in here or is it just me?"_

_"What?" Ron said as I rushed past him, opened the door, and burst into the hallway. _

_It was just my luck that as soon as I opened the door, Fred and George walked by, a little tipsy from all the champagne they had been drinking. "Well, well, well, Hermione, what were you and our _dear_ brother doing in this the hallway closet?" Fred had asked._

You mean the closet from Hell?_ I thought_. Oh we were just having a tea party.

_"A 'goodbye shag', I think Gred," George answered before I could say anything._

_I could feel my face getting hotter and hotter. Although, that was nothing compared to Ron's face. Now Ron's face has different shades of red. For mild embarrassments, he turns a strawberry pink. Then it becomes a tomato red/orange, then a fire truck red, then it starts going toward a purplish color. His face starts at a rose red, then moving to burgundy brick red, then to a red/purple onion, and finally a turnip purple. But this time, he surpassed turnip purple and went straight into pansy purple. Actually, strike that, that just brings back strange Hogwarts memories. I shall call it a… well, let's just say, his face was bright purple._

_"Fred… George… I was… er… just telling Hermione, that um… er… that I am… erm… erm… moving to uhh… Egypt," Ron said shuffling his feet and staring at them as well._

_"Riiiiiight," one of the twins said with a wink (it doesn't really matter which one)._

_I needed to get out of there. "Well, I better be getting back to that party in your backyard. I expect they'll be cutting the cake soon," This caused the twins to scurry back to the party. "Well, Ron, I hope you have a nice time in Egypt." _

_And then I left with Ron muttering, "But… but…"_

_But I didn't want to hear it. He was leaving. Any chance that I ever thought we would get back together was gone, shattered and left in the dust. _

And that's how Ron and I stopped talking. Sure, I still talk to Harry and Ginny's always around to go shopping with, but it's not the same without Ron. They'll have each other forever and always, until death do they part and I'll just have me, myself, and I. At least before I could feel like the third wheel with Ron, I even tried making Luna my single best friend.

That worked for awhile. Sure, she's a little out there and she often wants to do strange things like catch horned – whatchamadoodles, but we had fun. We'd go shopping in Diagon Alley. We'd gossip and reminisce about Hogwarts. We'd… well, we'd do everything best friends do together. And that was great, until she started dating Neville Longbottom.

So, don't get me wrong, I mean, Neville's a great guy. He got pretty successful after Hogwarts. He's managed to publish a few books, discover some plants and their uses, etc. Well, that's not exactly surprising, I mean, he was fairly good in the herbology area at Hogwarts. Actually, "fairy good" is a bit of an understatement…but I'm getting off topic again. Neville and Luna met… well, re-met at this Christmas party Harry and Ginny held a few years back…

_At first Neville and Luna were just bonding over the great eggnog Ginny had whipped up, that was the first time I had walked by them. Then I got pulled away by Ginny who tried to set me up with this horrid guy from Sweden or something. And I when I say horrid, I mean horrid. This guy must have been a nephew of Flitwick, he was so short. I mean, I don't consider myself tall, but this guy was at least 4 inches shorter than me. And he was so boring, OH was he boring. All he talked about was "My owl this…" and "I that…" Not once did he ask me what I did or what I liked. No, he just talked and talked and talked. How Ginny and Harry knew the guy I may never know. _

_When I finally got away from this guy, I went back to find Luna. Not only did I find Luna in the same spot where I had left her, I found Neville still talking to her. They had moved away from the topic of eggnog to reminiscing about Hogwarts and the DA. At first, I got pulled into the conversation. I remember chatting about Dumbledore (may he rest in peace) and if Cho Chang's friend still had "SNEAK" across her forehead. I mean, it was fun, but I could tell they wanted some time along, so I made some BS about wanting some more gingerbread cookies._

_Awkwardly, I went to go find someone to talk to, anyone to talk to. And just my luck, I find Fred and George trying to spike the punch bowl. _

_"Do you two realize that there are little children present in the room?"_

_"My dear Hermione, it is better they learn not to drink now then later on in life, like Hogwarts or their first job or something," one of the twins said, the one not holding the Firewhisky._

_"Touché, Fred, touché," George said as he poured half the bottle into the bowl._

_I just shook my head. "You know, Ginny will have a cow…"_

_"Ginny's having a cow?" George said as he took a drink out of the bottle._

_"I didn't know Ginny was pregnant! Oy! Everyone…" Fred added._

_"Shut up, you two, Ginny is no more pregnant than you two," I replied, taking the bottle away from them._

_"You know Hermione, you are less fun when you're not shagging our brother in our broom closet," George said as Fred nodded._

_"I have never shagged your brother." Not that I haven't thought about it. "And I am the same amount of fun I have always been. I might be even more fun than when I was at Hogwarts." _

_"Prove it," Fred said as he handed a young girl a glass of punch, which I promptly took away from her before she could take a sip._

_"I'm not 12 anymore. I am not going to _'prove it,' _and why? Because I have better things to do, like go get more alcohol free punch." That's when I took the punch bowl and left. I passed Luna and Neville making out at their table and I had to fight back a strong urge to yell "Get a room!" See? I can be fun, well, I would be fun if I had yelled that, but I had to be a wet blanket and get rid of the spiked punch bowl. _

So here I am, all alone. Even my plan to be single and alone _with_ someone else back fired. Yes, I know, I am pathetic.


End file.
